


The dead do not suffer

by Virtuelle



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Drugs, Explicit Language, I won't spoil in the tags, Minor Allison Hargreeves/Luther Hargreeves, Non-Explicit Sex, Or maybe explicit later, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23562538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virtuelle/pseuds/Virtuelle
Summary: Ben never knew how to lie. Klaus does. Because lying is far more useful than his own powers.But, mostly, it’s because he’s a good liar that he's able to keep his brother’s most important secrets.OrKlaus makes an unexpected encounter. It turns his life and that of his brother to a greater degree than he would have thought.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s), Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves & The Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	The dead do not suffer

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Les morts ne souffrent pas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23296414) by [Virtuelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virtuelle/pseuds/Virtuelle). 



> Hey ! First story I post here ^^  
> This is a long fic, the script is written, but in French, so I have to translate each chapter (I also posted the French version of the story on this site). And my English level is… uh, let's just say I really don't speak it fluently (I guess a beta system exists here, but I don't know how it works). 
> 
> For now, the fic is mainly centered on Ben and Klaus (because I love to be original, of course), but I'll try to focus on other characters. 
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy it !

« NUMBER FIVE ! »  
Reginald Hargreeves’ voice is loud, but not as loud as the door slamming behind Five.  
No one makes a gesture. Vanya’s ears are ringing, meanwhile she slowly feels anger growing up in her. Against Five. Five, who, whatever happens, listens to no one but himself.  
Her eyes meet Ben’s. Without any other word, they stand up and run toward the door. Ben pulls a joint out of Klaus’ hands on the way.  
Without listening to their father’s protest (or those of Klaus), they walk out the portal, decided to knock some sense into their arrogant brother.  
« Five !  
\- Five ! »  
They split up to follow each side of the long sidewalk in front of the Academy. Their allegedly home.  
Nothing. Vanya barely listen to her heart beating between her lungs, unaccustomed to such a race. The turns on herself, looking for anything that might indicate to her that her brother was in the area. She keeps running, calling him tirelessly. She’s aware that she looks like a crazy person, but she doesn’t care.  
She resigns herself to come back at to her starting point, and notes that Ben had not been luckier.

“Five ! Come back here, asshole!” Ben yells in the middle of the street.  
“Yes, insult him, it’s the best thing to do !” Vanya quips. Panic invades her progressively.  
“Shit, he did it, he really did it” his brother whines, passing his hand on his face. 

Several days ago, Five told them about his plan to experiment time travel. He claimed to have found the right equations so that he could jump accurately to the exact date he had chosen.  
Ben and Vanya immediately felt that it was a very bad idea. Even if they didn’t own Five’s knowledge about it, they were smart enough to realize that his project was excessively ambitious.  
Unfortunately, Five’s ambition was excessive, as was his arrogance.  
He just ignored their advices, presenting (according to him) irrefutable arguments, with barely concealed condescension.  
Vanya wondered why he had taken the time to talk to them about this, if he never intended to take their opinion into account.  
Now, she is furious. Furious and worried about that idiot, who was the only one of her siblings to completely ignore her lack of powers, and to consider her as something else than an ordinary person.

She feels a little pressure on her arm. Holding her head, she realizes that Ben had grabbed it, looking anxious.  
“Let’s go home, people are watching us”, he mumbles.  
“I’m not the one yelling”, Seven objects.  
“It’s just… come into the yard, at least, it will be more discreet. Then, we’ll figure it out.”  
Indeed, the passers-by look at them, and they are probably beginning to realize that the kids come from the famous Umbrella Academy… of which Vanya is not even supposed to be a part.  
They return into the garden’s part situated between the portal and the entrance door.  
Suddenly, it opens, revealing the massive silhouette of Luther. As soon as he sees them, he gets close to them. It’s hard to determine his expression, because of the mask covering a part of his face.  
Ben rolls his eyes. 

“Seriously, Luther. It’s already borderline when we are on a mission, but now, it’s just ridiculous.”  
“I won’t hear of it”, his brother says curtly. “You are completely irresponsible! Do you have any idea of the problems that you could cause?”  
“Geez, you sound more and more like Dad. Listen, we need to find Five before he goes too far, I’m afraid…”  
“Five will be back, you know it. He comes and goes as he pleases, and if something that might be a lesson to him happens, it’ll do him good.”  
“Don’t say that!” Vanya interferes, in a less assured voice than she would have liked. “If he managed to time travel, we can never find him!”  
“He didn’t do it”, number One claims. “Dad said he wasn’t ready”.  
“Dad is human, he’s likely to be wrong”, Ben retorts, exasperated. “Explain me how a person who has never had powers in his life could know ours better than us ?”  
“That’s exactly what Five would have said”, Luther sneers. “You’re so influenceable, Ben. Sooner or later, it will fall on you, believe me. Come on, let’s go home.”, he concludes with a domineering tone, turning tail.

Ben freezes, outraged to be called influenceable by the one who would jump off a bridge if Dad asked him. He seems ready to jump on him, but Vanya, also tired of her brother’s nonsense, prevented him, convincing him it was useless to engage a fight right now.  
In any case, try to find someone able to teleport himself literally anywhere is an almost impossible mission. Resigned, they follow Luther inside the Academy. Ben, glaring at their “leader”, puts his arm around his sister’s trembling shoulders while they enter in the entrance hall of their prison.  
***

Klaus Hargreeves likes nightlife. Actually, sneak out of the Academy in the middle of the night became vital. Vital, because it’s a way to escape, at least a little, to the daily hell ride imposed by the fucking bastard who serves as his father.  
Four months have elapsed since Five’s fugue, and since then, he’s still missing. Most of them have no hope to see him again, especially since Reginald coldly said that if Five really managed to travel through time, he wouldn’t come back.  
But Klaus is personally convinced that the old man said that only to dissuade them from going after their brother. And probably to discourage Vanya from going down at night in the kitchen to prepare sandwiches and switch on the porch.  
When only Ben and Vanya had returned that day, Reginald exploded with fury. He said that this kind of behavior was unacceptable, and he would no longer allow the members of his Umbrella Academy to do whatever they want with their abilities. From that time, training had intensified in an almost indecent way : at least 7 hours per day, plus study hours, if it wasn’t a whole days devoted to a personal training session.  
Klaus prefers to not think about it for now. 

His actual preoccupations are quite different. He walks freely and silently in the streets, carrying a little purse with a fake ID, pepper spray, a tiny knife borrowed from Diego without him knowing, and, of course, enough money to reconstruct a decent reserve of weed. By the way, his personal definition of “decent” evolves proportionally to the time passed by him in this fucking mausoleum… 

Anyway. Focus.  
His next objective is to find the guys who already sold him drugs behind Griddy’s.  
Fortunately, they’re here. They are barely older than him, but act as if they were at the head of Canada’s most dangerous drug cartel instead of the street dealers they were.  
So, he does what he has to do (why he came in first place), but he receives some looks and warnings excessively menacing; he’s about to declare that the only thing they’re leading is a garbage room behind a doughnut shop, but changes his mind, deciding he’s already spent too much time in cemeteries.  
So, he manages to shut it down, congratulating himself internally. A voice suddenly echoes his thoughts:  
« Not bad, kid, you manage to stay discreet, for once. And avoid getting beaten up. It was not won in advance, considering this thing you use as a jacket. No kidding, your father is billionaire and all you can find to wear is this disgusting cloth ? I didn’t think you could look even more… »  
Klaus hasten to silence him, pulling a drag on the joint that is long trembling fingers had just rolled. Rob is not the worst ghost he’s ever had to endure, but he still a real prick, depraved, gross, homophobic, and with a part of his skull missing. But nothing about him that drugs can’t handle. He internally blesses the evil genius who had the idea of marketing this shit, deliciously bad for his body, but awfully good for hi mental health. Well, it was his analysis.

Next destination : nightclub. Until now, he never managed to get inside without breaking the law. This time, he’s counting on the fake ID he brought.  
He quietly continues his way, enjoying joint’s effect, joint which was slowly consumed, as was his consciousness.  
He’s almost arrived at his destination, when he distinctly hears a men voice sound from an alley.  
“Hey, sweetheart, would you share this with me? I think it’s too much to yourself, you should leave me some…”

Bravery is not necessarily one of Klaus’ main qualities. Generally, when he detects a problem that don’t directly concern him and seems to be too difficult to manage, he passes his turn, while most of his siblings would behave like the heroes they would like to be. 

But something in the man’s voice upsets him deeply, especially since he seems to be trying to talk to a child. For some reasons, Klaus was sensitive to violence against children. Si, it’s without thinking too much that he uses the semblance of ethic subsisting within him to direct himself toward the source of the sound he had heard.  
And Klaus sees him. He’s pale, almost greenish, tall, with dirty hair. His arms are covered with marks -needles, probably-, and his eyes are bloodshot. He’s bent over a silhouette curled up against the wall. Like a little child. Klaus doesn’t loose time and shouts :  
« Hey, asshole ! »  
Provoking him like that was certainly not the best way to make him leave without any problem. Klaus would probably have thought about it if he’d been sober.  
The stranger, probably higher than Klaus ever was, turns himself to the boy. But he seems more… blurry. Klaus, following his instinct (which undoubtedly had known better days), throws one of his shoes at him, as if to scare away a stray cat. It only when the object passes through its target, that Klaus understands why the guy’s contours are somewhat faded.  
Right. 

The ghost begins to shout, but the number Four ignores him, because of a detail about the person huddled not far from them.  
It’s a young girl, who seems barely have his age. Her blond hair is matted, and her knee is bleeding, staining her dress. She doesn’t seem to have been alerted by the cry that Klaus had made earlier.  
What confuses Four is what she’s doing.  
Her left arm is clasped by a tourniquet, whose end is held between her teeth. In her trembling right hand, there is a syringe, far too large, and so far too full.  
The goal of this miss was clearly to inject in her veins a monstrous quantity of drugs.  
For the third time in less than a minute, Klaus reacts instinctively. He rushes to her and takes the syringe out of her hands, sending it across the street. Then, he grabs her shoulders, making the tourniquet fall.  
Before he could say anything, he meets her eyes. And words get stuck in his throat.  
The girl in front of him is staring at him, with her wide, big and beautiful blue eyes.  
Her porcelain face is invaded by tears, but she is... an angel...  
Klaus’ mind doesn’t have time to create a coherent thought.

The angel screams.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading !  
> I know that some elements of this story can be found in many others posted on this fandom (more intensive training after Five's "escape", Klaus' nightlife, jealousy toward Vanya, etc.). Of course, any too strong resemblance to another work would be purely incidental.  
> And sorry for all the grammar mistakes ^^"  
> Let me know if you enjoyed this 😘  
> Bye!


End file.
